Mark Dolan: Life Hacks

A weak and contradictory hour about taking control

Mark Dolan may have been the presenter of Channel 4's noughties bravado show, Balls of Steel, but his latest Fringe offering possesses neither of those elements. A perfectly amiable host, the Edinburgh-educated chap certainly roams his stage as though he means business. But before long it becomes worryingly clear that his material in Life Hacks has neither cohesion nor indeed much of a point as he attempts to throw a show together about taking control.

His flipchart of advice contains one page that says 'don't be so nice' while his final one says 'be nice'. This rather shoddy approach smacks not so such of 'written on the train up' as 'knocked out that afternoon'. His insights about Brexit, Chilcot or the monarchy lack insight and wit, while the recent news (to him, at least) of the bizarreness of Uber's rating system throws up nothing very much of comedic note.

Perhaps a script editor might have worked on those earlier inconsistencies and also had a quick word about making cracks about the weak physical strength of both vegans and new parents as though the idea had just been invented. Sadly, Mark Dolan's hour has little life but a whole lot of hack material.

PBJ Management / Gilded Balloon
Do you find life complicated? Is most of your day taken up with trying to remember passwords, looking for somewhere to charge your iPhone and unsubscribing from adult websites, some of which involve men in period costume? Mark Dolan's here to help with Life Hacks, his hilarious new…